Diablo Meets Tower Defense in The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot

Judging from Diablo III's sales numbers, pointing, clicking, and looting are all clearly activities that gamers enjoy. For the just-announced hack-and-slasher A Mighty Quest for Epic Loot, the developers at Ubisoft Montreal -- normally folks who spend their time crafting eight-figure-budgeted blockbusters that set you back $60 apiece -- have a rather simple question for you:

Would you like to point, click, and loot for free?

Such is the unique offer that Mighty Quest makes, though it's far more than a simple free-to-play Diablo clone. It's actually a two-sided affair of attacking and building. The former you're already quite familiar with from years spent playing Blizzard's devilishly successful franchise and its countless imitators. It even lifts Diablo III's interface almost exactly, with a health bar, mana bar, and four skill/attack slots. So it's the latter that sets Quest apart. On defense, you'll create your own dungeons using a handy level-creation tool, easily dragging, dropping, rotating, and populating challenging scenarios that other players will be faced with navigating and completing when they go into Attack mode. It's true that the team at Ubi Montreal will provide a batch of pre-baked scenarios for all to both traverse and study using either of the two included character classes (Knight and Archer), but the bulk of Quest's content generation will come from gamers themselves.

As in any good tower defense game, you won't simply be able to pile everything and the kitchen sink into your dungeon in Defend mode. You'll be on a budget, which both maintains competitive balance by keeping you from loading a room with every boss in the game simultaneously and prevents you from soaking up every drop of RAM from the PCs of your map's visitors. But you can add a healthy selection of monsters and trap-laden structures. Some of them are even themed, like a forge that featured flame-spewing ovens, which led to a final room guarded by a fire-breathing dragon named Mr. Firesly.

Interestingly, your character level and castle levels are separated. The idea is that you're meant to have to play the Defend mode in order to advance in it and unlock new and better fortifications and not simply rely on your offensive skills in order to hack-and-slash your way to an über-castle. And the longer players spend in your sanctuary of sadism, the more you'll be rewarded. In other words, the tougher you're able to make it on your fellow gamers, the better you'll be compensated. And you're asked to rate each castle you complete on a five-star scale, pushing the better designs to the top of the community's virtual bulletin board and earning gold for skilled builders. Better still, you're able to easily create bets with your friends. Challenge them, for instance, to get through the castle you just completed in under a certain amount of time, and bet the gold amount of your choice on it. To even the odds, you'll be able to set the character level for the both of you, so if you're level 20 but your pal is only 12, you can set it to 20 and give your buddy a taste of what's in store for him when he spends a bit more time with the game.

Fittingly, you'll see that, as the title indicates, A Mighty Quest for Epic Loot doesn't take itself too seriously. It's an intentionally tongue-in-cheek take on genre tropes, even if the core gameplay is plenty serious. Beta keys are starting to go out now, so you'll soon have the chance to judge for yourself if Mighty Quest is a laughing matter or not.

Ryan McCaffrey is the Executive Editor at IGN Xbox. He used to own a DeLorean, which is weird. Follow him on Twitter, on IGN, catch him on Podcast Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.

Source : ign[dot]com

Psychonauts Coming to PlayStation Network

Double Fine Productions has quite the following these days, what with cult hits like Brutal Legend, Costume Quest and Stacking. But the studio’s very first game – Psychonauts – holds a special place in the hearts of gamers.

So PlayStation gamers in particular will be excited to know that Psychonauts is set for release on the PlayStation Network as a PS2 Classic. Launched on Xbox and PlayStation 2 in 2005, Psychonauts will come to PSN in North America on August 28th. There’s no word yet on its release date in other territories, and no price for the game has been confirmed, though all other PS2 Classics cost $9.99.

Excited? Good! While you wait for August 28th to roll around, why not check out our original review of the game?

Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.

Source : ign[dot]com

Defiance: Sticky Grenades and Alien Aides

Trion has shown off how you can quest and kill in the open world and take part in Defiance. For this particular round of previews, arena PvP combat was on display. Using your regular PvE character, you’ll be able to queue up for matches while running around in the overworld and then magically transport yourself into maps that can range from fights between small teams to bigger 32 player contests that allow for vehicle use.

Defiance’s weaponry includes the conventional and the strange. You can run around with shotguns and assault rifles, or switch to a grenade launcher that lobs up to five sticky explosives that can be detonated by reloading the gun. While this is great for setting traps around stages, the bombs also stick to players, which means it could be wise to time the detonation so it coincides with the moment the affected player runs into a group of his friends. Alternatively, if a player sees there’s a bomb stuck to his clothing, he could run at you, making it impossible to detonate the bomb without dealing damage to yourself as well.

By equipping a beam weapon you become a significant threat, as its damaging energy discharge rapidly drains the health of any enemy it touches. By using its alternate fire, you turn into a healer, and can serve your team most effectively by pairing up with others and scouring the map for enemies as part of a pack. The strangest weapon on display fired blobs of organic goo at enemies. The blobs stuck and grew on targets, and eventually burst, spilling Half-Life-like headcrab monsters onto the ground. These creatures then scurried around the map for a limited time and attacked any hostiles in range.

In addition to weapons, you’ll have special abilities like cloaking fields and speed bursts and decoys to help escape from and distract opponents. The map included in the demo had plenty of hiding spots and few wide open spaces, making it easy to escape around a corner and throw off a pursuing enemy by tossing out a decoy in the opposite direction. Near the map’s center was a raised platform that gave a view of most of the map; an excellent place for snipers to sit and pick off any down below. Getting up to the platform was risky, though, as it required you climb up an exposed ladder at a slow pace, making you an easy target for any in the area.

If you’d rather play on larger maps with vehicles, you’ll find many machines can accommodate multiple players at once. One could drive while another could operate a rocket turret, so it seems the flow of combat on each map could differ quite significantly. While on foot, the game played just like you’d expect a third-person shooter to, which perhaps didn’t really highlight what are Defiance’s most interesting aspects – the fact that it’s not only a third-person shooter, but also an MMO. Still, it’s yet another way to play, in case you’re looking for combat that’s a bit more structured than the chaos of the open world.

Source : ign[dot]com

Ouya Kickstarter Closes With $8,596,475 Pledged

Ouya's Kickstarter funding campaign closed earlier this morning, with the project successfully having received $8,596,475 worth of funding from 63,416 backers.

The open source console's quest for funding launched back on July 10 with a funding goal of $950,000. Within seven hours it smashed through this target to have the most successful Kickstarter launch day ever.

“

It took us seven months to raise a little bit of investment from generous friends and family, and we raised the rest on Kickstarter in seven hours. We are just floored.

Speaking to IGN at the time, Ouya founder and CEO Julie Urhman said, "It took us seven months to raise a little bit of investment from generous friends and family, and we raised the rest on Kickstarter in seven hours. We are just floored.

"The next 29 days are about raising the bar: how much can we change things?  We're going to hang on tight for the ride!"

While the Kickstarter may be over, a number of developments in the last two weeks suggests that Ouya's wild ride isn't over yet. We told you last week that Square Enix became the first major published to support the console by releasing Final Fantasy III as a launch title, while also promising to provide more content in the future.

Then we found out that cloud gaming service OnLive would be available on Ouya from launch, alongside Vevo content, the XBMC media player and digital radio service TuneIn. Yesterday, Namco Bandai revealed it is in "active discussions" to become the second major publisher to support the console, which would bring Pac-Man, Galaga, Ridge Racer, and Tekken to the new platform.

Ouya is expected to release in March 2013, so expect even more news and partnerships to materialise before then; just yesterday we discovered the console will support four controllers.

The first Ouya exclusive title, a prequel to Robert Bowling’s Human Element, is currently in development.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

Ultima Forever: A Link to the Past

Ultima Forever is an interesting experiment for EA. Based on Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar – a game first released in 1985 and an RPG classic, developer BioWare Mythic is bringing Forever to both PC and iPad, with players able to move from one to the other as they choose. And the real kicker? It’s free-to-play too.

Anthony Gallegos had the first details a few weeks ago, but for those of you craving more on this interesting project, we've done a follow-up Q&A with executive producer Jeff Skalski.

IGN: What's exciting to you about going free-to-play with this title?

Jeff Skalski: The amount of players who will be able to experience Ultima Forever and perhaps even their first Ultima game. For those reading, you have no reason not to jump in and have a look!

IGN: What parts of the game will be free and what will be available for purchase?

Jeff Skalski: You’ll find no lightning bolts here, so keep playing to your heart’s content. I never wanted to kick players out of our game and say, “Hey, come back in 3 hours. Goodbye.” The game is wide open. You’ll need to level up to take on new challenges, but all of that can be earned by just playing the game. As for what’s available to purchase, quite a bit actually. You can buy new vanity gear to stand out in the crowd, or even a new weapon that has those stats you’ve been hunting for. Need a few more healing pots or a little more inventory space, we got you covered. Want early access to your favourite classes’ abilities? We’ll even let you snag those too. The only one thing we won’t sell is virtue. You have to earn that! ;)

IGN: Cross-platform play is a great idea, but can you tell us a little about the challenges of creating a single game that caters to the strengths of two very different platforms/control systems?

Jeff Skalski: Great question, no doubt it’s been hard, but so exciting in the end. We went for depth in gameplay with U4E. Not a one night affair experience. It is an online RPG adventure game at its core, so we just made sure when it came to controls, interface design, and combat pacing that we first thought of the touch consumer and then how would that play best with a more traditional experience such as a keyboard and mouse. These conversations happened in parallel and will continue as we continue to grow and build out U4E.

IGN: Ultima Forever is a "reimagining of the original rich world". Is this more a thematic reimagining, or will you be basing the new game on the same locations, characters and enemies?

Jeff Skalski: For those familiar with the ’85 classic Ultima IV, no doubt you’ll recognize certain NPCs, locations and some of the key moments you took in proving you were an Avatar. There will also be things new for you to explore and experience. We took liberty to make changes as needed, such as going from single player to multiplayer, and turn based to real time combat. The story has been fast forwarded 21 years and a new leader has taken the throne. Past friends have aged, but new friends are waiting to be met.

IGN: Will players once again be playing only as a human?

Jeff Skalski: Yes, we will have Human only classes. We are currently targeting two at launch with the remaining six releasing every few months afterwards.

The two classes that will be available at launch, we presume.

IGN: Players are now used to creating characters that can be good, evil or somewhere in between. How do you think they'll respond to the central goal of this game, which is to be virtuous?

Jeff Skalski: I hope they find it refreshing and engaging. It’s good to go back and remember your roots. Ultima IV did so much for the RPG genre. It inspired so many franchises still enjoyed today. I hope Ultima Forever puts that back into the forefront of gamers who never got to experience the original.

IGN: Can you give us some examples of quests or gameplay based on specific virtues?

Jeff Skalski: It starts from the moment you create your character. The gypsy will look at you and pose her questions. Your answers will dictate your starting virtue levels and the color of your first set of gear. (For those new to Ultima, each of the 8 virtues is tied to a specific color.) All throughout the rest of the game you’ll stumble across NPCs with moral quandaries seeking advice, but most importantly how you treat other real players will influence your virtue gain.

Concept art of the gypsy.

IGN: Can you give us some examples of difficult moral choices the player may have to make?

Jeff Skalski: While travelling through town a woman stops you and asks if you can go find her husband. He’s been missing for 6 days and has not returned from his last adventure to a nearby cave. You accept the quest and go exploring. While travelling through the caves you stumble across a corpse of a fallen warrior and upon searching it you uncover it was this woman’s husband, but also in his pockets is a letter from his mistress. You return to the woman, now widow, and are given a choice. Do you hand the letter over to the woman and tell her, “Your husband has died, but no worries; he was a lying bastard who was cheating on you anyways.” (Honesty) or rip the letter behind your back and tell her, “Your husband died an honorable death. I’m sorry for your loss.” (Compassion) Neither answer is wrong or right, but it’s your choice to decide what virtues you lean towards and ultimately the path you’ll take to prove worthy of Avatarhood.

IGN: Will the multiplayer be co-op only, or will there be PVP as well? How many players can quest together?

Jeff Skalski: Multiplayer will be co-op only, but it doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun with your group while playing. i.e. Activating a trap at the wrong moment. ;) As for the group size, it’s a total of four.

IGN: Can you tell me a little about the game's combat system?

Jeff Skalski: Sure, think Legend of the Zelda: Link to the Past, but you have 4-5 abilities instead of just swing. Our combat is positional based, and by flanking or hitting an enemy from behind you increase your chance to crit.

So what do you think? Are you looking forward to Ultima Forever? Let us know in the comments. Oh, and anyone interested in taking part in the upcoming closed beta can sign up at the official website.

Cam Shea is the senior editor at IGN Australia. You can follow him here on IGN, and why not join the IGN AU Facebook community? 

Source : ign[dot]com